Montenegro top court defers crypto mogul Kwon’s extradition to S. Korea

The top court in Montenegro said Friday it has decided to temporarily defer the extradition of disgraced crypto mogul Do Kwon to his home country of South Korea to face trial on charges connected to the crash of cryptocurrencies.

The top court said Kwon’s extradition to his home country will be put on hold until it reaches a conclusion on the top prosecutors office’s request to review whether the procedures that led to the decision were legal, according to its website.

Kwon, the co-founder of the cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs, is wanted both by South Korea and the United States, where he faces investigation and indictment on charges connected to the crash of the firm’s TerraUSD and Luna coins in May 2022. The crash was estimated to have wiped out nearly 50 trillion won (US$37 billion) in market value.

Earlier this week, an appeals court in the Balkan country ruled for Kwon’s extradition to South Korea, upholding a previous decision made by the high court in the country’s capital, Podgorica.

On Thursday (local time), Montenegro’s top prosecutors office claimed in a statement that the court decisions were in violation of due procedures and said that it has requested the top court to decide whether the procedures behind the court rulings were legal.

The office claimed that the courts reached the extradition rulings irregularly through summary procedures and by overstepping the scope of their authorities, as a decision on extradition pertains to the justice minister.

The office also requested the top court to reverse the lower courts’ decisions.

Bloomberg had earlier reported that Kwon’s extradition could take place as early as this weekend when the jail term he is serving in Montenegro on charges of using a forged passport expires.

If the top court rules in favor of the top prosecutors office, the final decision on Kwon’s extradition will once again be made by Montenegro’s justice minister.

Kwon has reportedly been seeking extradition to South Korea rather than the U.S., where he could face a sentence of over 100 years in prison for the charges he is facing, far heavier than the estimated maximum 30-year prison term in his home country.

He was captured at an airport in Montenegro in March last year when he was reportedly trying to board a plane bound for the United Arab Emirates on a forged passport. He had been on the loose after fleeing Korea amid a probe in connection with the crypto debacle.

TerraUSD was designed as a stablecoin, pegged to stable assets like the U.S. dollar. However, holders of TerraUSD and Luna lost most of their assets after the stablecoin plunged far below its $1 peg.